Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Cosmic Joke

Peruse the photograph that accompanies this column. Taken
last Friday by the Cassini probe currently orbiting Saturn, it’s one of
those pictures NASA likes to release to the public in an effort to
remind us that they A) exist and B) can do stuff besides bum rides from
the Russians to the International Space Station. Recalling the famed
“family portrait” that the late, great Carl Sagan led the Voyager team
to create in 1990, the Earth is in the picture. And much like the “pale
blue dot” section of Sagan’s famous photo mosaic, the Earth is very,
very small.

This latest photograph, which shows Saturn in all her majesty,
actually includes the Earth only as a cosmic afterthought. Of course,
our beautiful blue marble is a cosmic afterthought. Heck, Saturn
is neither the largest of our planets, nor the farthest from home; those
honors belong to Jupiter and Neptune, respectively.

Nonetheless, the
photograph is as humbling as any image that accurately depicts our
infinitesimal smallness against the backdrop of God’s infinite creation.

But forget the metaphysical stuff. In fact, let’s put all the really
cool regular physics aside, as well. Focus on the photograph. It was
snapped by Cassini just six days ago. And that simple act of clicking
the shutter on a plutonium-powered camera is amazing all by itself.

See, it took 14 years of development and construction, 16 years
flying via remote control across more than a billion miles, nearly $4
billion and the cooperation of some of the most brilliant humans
available in more than a dozen separate countries just to take that
picture. Even the Italians, the same guys responsible for Fiat, pitched
in. To be sure, there have been a couple of hiccups. A European Space
Agency programming error caused the loss of one of the Huygens data
channels and about 350 images of Saturn’s moon Titan. But given the fact
that Cassini is about the size of a school bus and is assigned to cover
a neighborhood even less hospitable than South Central Los Angeles, a
minor transmitter failure is cosmically small.

The usual suspects nearly derailed Cassini years before its launch
date. As zero hour approached, a far left eco-loon group named the
Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice tried to scrub the project on
the grounds that its plutonium fuel posed a threat to the human race (or
something to that effect). The Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice
still exists, and it has continued its mission of scaring people with
pseudoscience claptrap. Sixteen years after getting it all wrong about
Cassini, its website is currently a mélange of so-called “global
warming” babble and advertisements for something called “The Sustainable
Living Center,” which sounds an awful lot like a “campground.” Beyond
that, an impassioned campaign by astronaut Sally Ride and some luck at
the budgetary butcher shop barely saved the program. And it still
had to achieve escape velocity from the entropy that afflicts nearly
everything that wanders too close to Washington, D.C.’s wild orbit.

Cooperating nations spent billions of dollars to make what amounts to
a really amazing car that has functioned just about flawlessly for
nearly 20 years — all despite worse working conditions than those faced
by Keith Olbermann’s limousine service. Think about that for a moment; I
mean, really let it sink in. Right now, as you’re considering the
magnitude of the scientific, technological and bureaucratic success that
is Cassini as well as the many parts of the incredible journey that
produced that amazing photograph, the United Nations is spending many
billions more Cassini cost to combat so-called “global warming.”

On the one hand, a group made up of multiple nationalities and
specialties worked on multiple levels over multiple years to advance our
understanding of the actual universe. On the other hand, a group made
up of multiple nationalities and specialties is working on multiple
levels over multiple years to advance our understanding of pseudoscience
that averages a name change per decade.

The next time President Barack Hussein Obama and/or one of his
liberal cronies goes into hysterics over global warming or suggests
throwing taxpayer dollars at another “green” energy boondoggle, think of
this photograph. Then ask yourself: “Could the same guys who came up
with ‘global warming’ and Solyndra pull this off?”

House Rejects Effort to Cut off NSA Program Newsmax

1inSh

The House narrowly rejected a challenge to the National Security
Agency's secret collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone
records Wednesday night after a fierce debate pitting privacy rights
against the government's efforts to thwart terrorism.

The vote was 217-205 on an issue that created unusual political
coalitions in Washington, with libertarian-leaning conservatives and
liberal Democrats pressing for the change against the Obama
administration, the Republican establishment and Congress' national
security experts.

The showdown vote marked the first chance for lawmakers to take a stand
on the secret surveillance program since former NSA systems analyst
Edward Snowden leaked classified documents last month that spelled out
the monumental scope of the government's activities.

Backing the NSA program were 134 Republicans and 83 Democrats, including
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who typically does not vote, and
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Rejecting the administration's
last-minute pleas to spare the surveillance operation were 94
Republicans and 111 Democrats.

It is unlikely to be the final word on government intrusion to defend the nation and Americans' civil liberties.

"Have 12 years gone by and our memories faded so badly that we forgot
what happened on Sept. 11?" Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the
Intelligence Committee, said in pleading with his colleagues to back the
program during House debate.

Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, chief sponsor of the repeal
effort, said his aim was to end the indiscriminate collection of
Americans' phone records.

His measure, offered as an addition to a $598.3 billion defense spending
bill for 2014, would have canceled the statutory authority for the NSA
program, ending the agency's ability to collect phone records and
metadata under the USA Patriot Act unless it identified an individual
under investigation.

The House later voted to pass the overall defense bill, 315-109.

Amash told the House that his effort was to defend the Constitution and "defend the privacy of every American."

"Opponents of this amendment will use the same tactic that every
government throughout history has used to justify its violation of
rights: Fear," he said. "They'll tell you that the government must
violate the rights of the American people to protect us against those
who hate our freedom."

The unlikely political coalitions were on full display during a spirited but brief House debate.

"Let us not deal in false narratives. Let's deal in facts that will keep
Americans safe," said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a member of the
Intelligence committee who implored her colleagues to back a program
that she argued was vital in combatting terrorism.

But Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a senior member of the Judiciary
Committee who helped write the Patriot Act, insisted "the time has come"
to stop the collection of phone records that goes far beyond what he
envisioned.

Several Republicans acknowledged the difficulty in balancing civil
liberties against national security, but expressed suspicion about the
Obama administration's implementation of the NSA programs — and anger at
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

"Right now the balancing is being done by people we do not know. People who lied to this body," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C.

He was referring to Clapper who admitted he gave misleading statements
to Congress on how much the U.S. spies on Americans. Clapper apologized
to lawmakers earlier this month after saying in March that the U.S. does
not gather data on citizens — something that Snowden revealed as false
by releasing documents showing the NSA collects millions of phone
records.

With a flurry of letters, statements and tweets, both sides lobbied
furiously in the hours prior to the vote in the Republican-controlled
House. In a last-minute statement, Clapper warned against dismantling a
critical intelligence tool.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress has authorized — and a
Republican and a Democratic president have signed — extensions of the
powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of
terrorists.

Two years ago, in a strong bipartisan statement, the Senate voted 72-23
to renew the Patriot Act and the House backed the extension 250-153.

Since the disclosures this year, however, lawmakers have said they were
shocked by the scope of the two programs — one to collect records of
hundreds of millions of calls and the other allowing the NSA to sweep up
Internet usage data from around the world that goes through nine major
U.S.-based providers.

Although Republican leaders agreed to a vote on the Amash amendment, one
of 100 to the defense spending bill, time for debate was limited to 15
minutes out of the two days the House dedicated to the overall
legislation.

The White House and the director of the NSA, Army Gen. Keith Alexander,
made last-minute appeals to lawmakers, urging them to oppose the
amendment. Rogers and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., leaders of
the House Intelligence Committee, implored their colleagues to back the
NSA program.

Eight former attorneys general, CIA directors and national security
experts wrote in a letter to lawmakers that the two programs are fully
authorized by law and "conducted in a manner that appropriately respects
the privacy and civil liberties interests of Americans."

White House press secretary Jay Carney issued an unusual, nighttime
statement on the eve of Wednesday's vote, arguing that the change would
"hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism
tools."

Proponents of the NSA programs argue that the surveillance operations
have been successful in thwarting at least 50 terror plots across 20
countries, including 10 to 12 directed at the United States. Among them
was a 2009 plot to strike at the New York Stock Exchange.

Rogers joined six GOP chairmen in a letter urging lawmakers to reject the Amash amendment.

"While many members have legitimate questions about the NSA metadata
program, including whether there are sufficient protections for
Americans' civil liberties," the chairman wrote, "eliminating this
program altogether without careful deliberation would not reflect our
duty, under Article I of the Constitution, to provide for the common
defense."

The overall defense spending bill would provide the Pentagon with $512.5
billion for weapons, personnel, aircraft and ships plus $85.8 billion
for the war in Afghanistan for the next budget year.

The total, which is $5.1 billion below current spending, has drawn a
veto threat from the White House, which argues that it would force the
administration to cut education, health research and other domestic
programs in order to boost spending for the Pentagon.

In a leap of faith, the bill assumes that Congress and the
administration will resolve the automatic, across-the-board spending
cuts that have led the Pentagon to furlough workers and cut back on
training. The bill projects spending in the next fiscal year at $28.1
billion above the so-called sequester level.

By voice vote, the House backed an amendment that would require the
president to seek congressional approval before sending U.S. military
forces into the 2-year-old civil war in Syria.

Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., sponsor of the measure, said Obama has a
"cloudy foreign policy" and noted the nation's war weariness after more
than 10 years of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The administration is moving ahead with sending weapons to vetted
rebels, but Obama and members of Congress have rejected the notion of
U.S. ground forces.

The House also adopted, by voice vote, an amendment barring funds for
military or paramilitary operations in Egypt. Several lawmakers,
including Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who heads the panel overseeing
foreign aid, expressed concerns about the measure jeopardizing the
United States' longstanding relationship with the Egyptian military.

The sponsor of the measure, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., insisted that his amendment would not affect that relationship.

The overall bill must be reconciled with whatever measure the Democratic-controlled Senate produces.

"If we want to stop this train wreck from hitting hard-working American
families, the time to do so is now," the freshman from Texas said
Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "Special Report." President Barack Obama
desperately wants the exchanges and subsidies in place by January, Cruz
said, so the administration can "get people hooked on Obamacare so it
can never be unwound."

The continuing resolution that funds the federal government expires
Sept. 30, and Cruz, along with Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rand
Paul, R-Ky., are hoping to garner enough votes to prevent the resolution
from being re-enacted for another year. But Cruz said they don't
currently have enough votes in either house and need the public to put
pressure on Republicans.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told Fox the action is the political equivalent
of a temper tantrum and could create a backlash that could cost
Republicans in Congress.

But Cruz argued that the power of the purse is the most important check
and balance the Constitution gives Congress when dealing with and
overreaching executive branch.

"If we're going to repeal it we've got to do so now or it will remain with us forever," Cruz said.

Obama halts delivery of F-16 jets to Egypt after Muslim Brotherhood removed from power

From Jihad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer

This is fine. He shouldn't
have been giving Egypt F-16s in the first place. But this is yet another
indication of how much he favors the Brotherhood. "Obama halts delivery
of four F-16 jets to Egypt amid unrest," by Jim Miklaszewski and
Courtney Kube for NBC News, July 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has delayed the delivery
of four U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Egypt because of the country’s
political unrest, officials said Wednesday - reversing earlier
assurances from the Pentagon.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the U.S. no longer believes it
is "appropriate to move forward with the delivery" of the jets.

The announcement contradicted statements two weeks ago by Pentagon
officials that the U.S. would continue to send the jets as part of a
large arms package.

Washington’s annual $1.5 billion aid to Egypt has been under the
spotlight since the July 3 ousting of elected President Mohammed Morsi
by the country’s military.

The army has installed an interim government and says it will seek
fresh elections, but supporters of Morsi – including regional allies
such as Turkey – have denounced the move as a coup.

U.S. law requires that aid be cut off to a country that undergoes a
military coup, but Western leaders have stopped short of declaring the
July 3 transition as such.

Egypt is the second-largest recipient of USAID support, after Israel.
Almost all of it comes in the form of military funding that is mandated
to be spent with U.S. defense companies. In 2011, a Cornell economist
estimated that U.S. aid made up one-third of Egypt’s broader military
budget, the Washington Post noted.

Little said Obama made the decision to delay the delivery "with the unanimous consent" of his national security team.

He would not elaborate on what had happened in Egypt to change the
administration’s mind over the delivery, saying the decision was based
on "the dynamics on the ground in Egypt," which he described as "a fluid
situation."

Mr. President, Let Us Move On

The
reaction to President Barack Obama's highly personal speech last
Friday, ostensibly on race but actually on himself, has been
surprisingly subdued. Some would have thought he was going to tone down
the rhetoric. Instead, his rhetoric was inflammatory. I think he caught
the country off guard. The vast majority of Americans were going about
their business, and then -- whammo -- the president was in the White
House press room emoting. Still, over the weekend things were relatively
quiet. Most Americans wanted it that way.

I suppose one reason for the country's relative nonchalance was the
country thought the president's remarks were embarrassing, as though he
had burped in public. He reminded us Friday that back in March of 2012,
when Martin was killed, he first inserted himself into the news story,
saying, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." It was a tasteless
remark then and it was tasteless when he repeated it Friday. Worse, he
followed up with a another absurdity, declaring: "Another way of saying
that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago."

Thirty-five years ago, Barack Obama was going by the name of Barry
Obama. He was attending the posh Punahou School. He was on scholarship. I
do not know about Punahou, but I do know about Hawaii. It is famous for
its mixed-blood population. Hawaii is truly cosmopolitan. Trayvon, in
his tough-guy outfit and his slang, would be distinctly out of place
there. Barry was not.

Barry was being raised in Hawaii by his white grandparents. It was as
a child of privilege that Barry attended Punahou, and before that, he
was living in Indonesia among that nation's elite. Maybe one reason the
president's talk about race Friday sounded so embarrassing was that it
was artificial, and besides, Americans have heard it all before. They
heard it from that poor little boy from Arkansas, Bill Clinton. Now they
hear it from poor Barack Obama. Both attended elite schools, graduated
from Ivy League universities, and entered the American establishment. My
guess is that knowledgeable Americans know that Obama is a creature of
his own imagination, aided and abetted by what might be called the
liberal imagination. Clinton used his mythical upbringing for
self-promotion. Obama is more egregious. He is inflaming racial
animosities.

Almost nothing has been said by America's black leaders about Trayvon
Martin or his recently acquitted assailant, George Zimmerman, that is
accurate or true. From Jesse Jackson on down, it is almost as though
they had developed some sort of mental block against both men. Yet there
are people who have commented with sagacity, and, as a matter of fact,
they are black.

From Bill Cosby, the entertainer and by now a common sense social
critic, comes the observation that "you can't prove" Zimmerman a racist.
"You can't prove," Cosby says, "if somebody is a racist unless they
really come out and do the act. ... " From Charles Barkely, the retired
basketball player and occasional commentator, "I feel sorry that the
young kid got killed, but they didn't have enough evidence to charge
him. Something clearly went wrong that night ... but if you look at the
case -- and there was some racial profiling -- something changed the
dynamic that night." Speaking on CNBC, he concluded that Martin
"flip[ped] the switch and started beating the hell out of Mr.
Zimmerman."

Finally from Dr. Ben Carson, a distinguished neurosurgeon
and now a promising columnist for the Washington Times, comes the
definitive response to Obama's comments last week. "Tone down the
rhetoric," says Carson, "and recognize that we the people are not each
other's enemies.
Those are the observations of men with good sense with an interest in a peaceful society.

Honest Discussion Needed

Even Drudge ran the birth of the Prince of Cambridge at the top of his
page, treating it like it was the biggest event out of Europe since
D-Day.

Maybe the media wanted to change the subject to something pleasant -- or
completely unimportant -- but the arrival of Kate and William's baby
boy was a timely blessing.

It blew George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin and the issue of race in
America off the front pages. It even eclipsed President Obama's
teleprompter-free speech about the Zimmerman verdict last Friday
afternoon.

The liberal media, as usual, gave the presidential sermon a standing
ovation, saying that Obama -- who claimed Trayvon Martin could have been
him 35 years ago -- hit a home run.

But I agree with what that old boo-bird Bill O'Reilly said on his TV
show Monday night. The president didn't whiff completely, but he
grounded out weakly to second base.

O'Reilly, madder than usual, praised the president in his "Talking Points Memo" for bringing up the issue.

But then he blasted Obama and other black leaders for still having "no
clue" how to solve the social and moral problems that continue to rip
apart black communities in our cities.

O'Reilly pointed out that, yes, Martin was profiled by Zimmerman, the community watchman. But it wasn't because of his race.

It was because Martin was wearing a hoodie -- the official national uniform of urban street thugs and drug gangs.

When President Obama said Martin could have been him 35 years ago, he
was talking nonsense. Thirty-five years ago, Barack Obama wasn't
stalking around gated communities at night wearing gangster clothes and
getting in fistfights.

Trayvon Martin's death was a horrible tragedy. That cannot be said too many times.

But Martin's death should not be exploited any further by the president
or anyone else as proof that white racism is the chief cause of problems
in the black community.

Black communities have been breeding a criminal class for decades.
Repealing stand-your-ground laws or passing stricter gun control laws
will not change that. Nor will blaming the justice system.

The black community's problems begin at home. They are not a result of slavery or discrimination or poverty.

They are, as O'Reilly said, a result of the disintegration of the black
family, a gangster culture that glorifies criminals, and a bunch of
so-called civil rights leaders who ignore reality, preach victimhood and
blame racism for everything.

Young black males are dying at disproportionate rates in Chicago and
other cities not because they're being shot by racist white cops, or
wanna-be cops like George Zimmerman, but because they are being gunned
down by other young black males, usually over drug-gang turf wars.

O'Reilly said, "It's now time for the African-American leadership,
including President Obama, to stop the nonsense. Walk away from the
world of victimization and grievance and lead the way out of this mess."

Exactly.

Black leaders, including the president, need to step up and start
talking about the real causes of crime and poverty in black communities.
So should our gutless media.

For a year the president and black leaders have cynically exploited a
tragedy to "prove" that society still needs to do much more for blacks.

Instead they should be using Trayvon Martin's death as an opportunity to
start an honest national discussion about what the black community
needs to do for itself.

Marco Rubio Opposes
Common Core Education Standards
July 25, 2013
0
The Shark Tank
By JAVIER MANJARRES
“The Common Core of Data (CCD) is a program of the U.S. Department
of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics that annually
collects fiscal and non-fiscal data about all public schools, public
school districts and state education agencies in the United States. The
data are supplied by state education agency officials and include
information that describes schools and school districts, including name,
address, and phone number; descriptive information about students and
staff, including demographics; and fiscal data, including revenues and
current expenditures.”- U.S. Department of Education, National Center
for Education Statistics
Common Core seems to have flown under the radar of most Americans, and
its federalized ‘balanced playing field’ approach to education reform
has received the praise and support of progressive education reformers
within both the Republican and Democratic establishments in Washington,
D.C.
The idea of socialized education, like socialized medicine
(Obamacare), appeals to the masses, but what many of these uninformed
taxpayers don’t know about Common Core is that the program is just
another egregious government overreach into their lives, and now the
lives of their children. This new ‘innovative’ education reform
initiative will bring substantial costs down upon state and local school
education budgets when national standards tests are imposed.
Columnist and Fox News Contributor, Michelle Malkin, along with a
growing number of concerned Americans, has been railing against these
progressive “Snoopercrats” and their initiative’s ‘data-mining’ efforts,
that if deployed, will keep tabs of students and their study habits,
among other things.
While these Washington,D.C. “Snoopercrats” try to sell their progressive
learning program as a state-by-state endeavor, the the ugly truth is
that Common Core is a federally funded program that all but bribes
state governments to accept the standards, as they do federal funding.
Malkin writes that Common Core, whose goal is to create a 50-state
standardized educational system, received initial funding from
President Obama’s Stimulus(Porkulus) Act of 2009, as well hundreds of
millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Shark Tank
The Shark Tank
One of these intrusive data-mining tactics Common Core is employing are
the iris scans of students, like the ones conducted as several schools
in Polk County, Florida. Yes, iris scans, which Malkin says are
“essentially optical fingerprints, which the school intended to collect
to create a database of biometric information for school bus security.”
While many top Republicans, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush,
have come out in support of Common Core, Republican U.S. Senator Marco
Rubio has once again bucked the establishment by stating that he is
against the Common Core education standards.
I caught up to Senator Rubio in Orlando, where I asked him what his
position on the issue was. When asked if he was against the Common Core
education standards, Rubio answered with a definitive ‘Yes’ response.
Rubio says that he is “a supporter of curriculum reform,” but thinks
that “curriculum reform should be done at the state level.” The junior
Senator reiterated that he believes in “curriculum reform,” but thinks
“it is best done at the state level, not at the federal level.”
And I am very concerned, and quite frankly opposed to any effort to
try to create some sort of national curriculum standard and then try to
leverage the power of the federal government’s funding to force states
to adopt a certain curriculum standard. State and local levels are the
best places to come up with curriculum reform, and its something the
federal government shouldn’t be deeply involved in.-Senator Marco Rubio
Rubio first sounded off against the federal government’s education grab
in early July, when he penned a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan, stating the unconstitutionality of the move to create a
national education curriculum.
I am also concerned that the U.S. Department of Education has
created, through its contractors, national curriculum materials to
support these Common Core standards. Such activities are unacceptable;
they violate three existing laws: NCLB, the Department of Education
Organization Act, and the General Education Provisions Act.
All three laws prohibit the federal government from creating or
prescribing national curriculum.-FL Watchdog.
- See more at:
http://shark-tank.net/2013/07/25/marco-rubio-opposes-common-core-education-standards/#sthash.79tmdCs7.dpuf

Marco Rubio Opposes Common Core Education Standards
July 25, 2013
0
The Shark Tank
By JAVIER MANJARRES
“The Common Core of Data (CCD) is a program of the U.S. Department
of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics that annually
collects fiscal and non-fiscal data about all public schools, public
school districts and state education agencies in the United States. The
data are supplied by state education agency officials and include
information that describes schools and school districts, including name,
address, and phone number; descriptive information about students and
staff, including demographics; and fiscal data, including revenues and
current expenditures.”- U.S. Department of Education, National Center
for Education Statistics
Common Core seems to have flown under the radar of most Americans, and
its federalized ‘balanced playing field’ approach to education reform
has received the praise and support of progressive education reformers
within both the Republican and Democratic establishments in Washington,
D.C.
The idea of socialized education, like socialized medicine
(Obamacare), appeals to the masses, but what many of these uninformed
taxpayers don’t know about Common Core is that the program is just
another egregious government overreach into their lives, and now the
lives of their children. This new ‘innovative’ education reform
initiative will bring substantial costs down upon state and local school
education budgets when national standards tests are imposed.
Columnist and Fox News Contributor, Michelle Malkin, along with a
growing number of concerned Americans, has been railing against these
progressive “Snoopercrats” and their initiative’s ‘data-mining’ efforts,
that if deployed, will keep tabs of students and their study habits,
among other things.
While these Washington,D.C. “Snoopercrats” try to sell their progressive
learning program as a state-by-state endeavor, the the ugly truth is
that Common Core is a federally funded program that all but bribes
state governments to accept the standards, as they do federal funding.
Malkin writes that Common Core, whose goal is to create a 50-state
standardized educational system, received initial funding from
President Obama’s Stimulus(Porkulus) Act of 2009, as well hundreds of
millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Shark Tank
The Shark Tank
One of these intrusive data-mining tactics Common Core is employing are
the iris scans of students, like the ones conducted as several schools
in Polk County, Florida. Yes, iris scans, which Malkin says are
“essentially optical fingerprints, which the school intended to collect
to create a database of biometric information for school bus security.”
While many top Republicans, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush,
have come out in support of Common Core, Republican U.S. Senator Marco
Rubio has once again bucked the establishment by stating that he is
against the Common Core education standards.
I caught up to Senator Rubio in Orlando, where I asked him what his
position on the issue was. When asked if he was against the Common Core
education standards, Rubio answered with a definitive ‘Yes’ response.
Rubio says that he is “a supporter of curriculum reform,” but thinks
that “curriculum reform should be done at the state level.” The junior
Senator reiterated that he believes in “curriculum reform,” but thinks
“it is best done at the state level, not at the federal level.”
And I am very concerned, and quite frankly opposed to any effort to
try to create some sort of national curriculum standard and then try to
leverage the power of the federal government’s funding to force states
to adopt a certain curriculum standard. State and local levels are the
best places to come up with curriculum reform, and its something the
federal government shouldn’t be deeply involved in.-Senator Marco Rubio
Rubio first sounded off against the federal government’s education grab
in early July, when he penned a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan, stating the unconstitutionality of the move to create a
national education curriculum.
I am also concerned that the U.S. Department of Education has
created, through its contractors, national curriculum materials to
support these Common Core standards. Such activities are unacceptable;
they violate three existing laws: NCLB, the Department of Education
Organization Act, and the General Education Provisions Act.
All three laws prohibit the federal government from creating or
prescribing national curriculum.-FL Watchdog.
Sha
- See more at:
http://shark-tank.net/2013/07/25/marco-rubio-opposes-common-core-education-standards/#sthash.aWWTU9jY.dpuf

Marco Rubio Opposes
Common Core Education Standards
July 25, 2013
0
The Shark Tank
By JAVIER MANJARRES
“The Common Core of Data (CCD) is a program of the U.S. Department
of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics that annually
collects fiscal and non-fiscal data about all public schools, public
school districts and state education agencies in the United States. The
data are supplied by state education agency officials and include
information that describes schools and school districts, including name,
address, and phone number; descriptive information about students and
staff, including demographics; and fiscal data, including revenues and
current expenditures.”- U.S. Department of Education, National Center
for Education Statistics
Common Core seems to have flown under the radar of most Americans, and
its federalized ‘balanced playing field’ approach to education reform
has received the praise and support of progressive education reformers
within both the Republican and Democratic establishments in Washington,
D.C.
The idea of socialized education, like socialized medicine
(Obamacare), appeals to the masses, but what many of these uninformed
taxpayers don’t know about Common Core is that the program is just
another egregious government overreach into their lives, and now the
lives of their children. This new ‘innovative’ education reform
initiative will bring substantial costs down upon state and local school
education budgets when national standards tests are imposed.
Columnist and Fox News Contributor, Michelle Malkin, along with a
growing number of concerned Americans, has been railing against these
progressive “Snoopercrats” and their initiative’s ‘data-mining’ efforts,
that if deployed, will keep tabs of students and their study habits,
among other things.
While these Washington,D.C. “Snoopercrats” try to sell their progressive
learning program as a state-by-state endeavor, the the ugly truth is
that Common Core is a federally funded program that all but bribes
state governments to accept the standards, as they do federal funding.
Malkin writes that Common Core, whose goal is to create a 50-state
standardized educational system, received initial funding from
President Obama’s Stimulus(Porkulus) Act of 2009, as well hundreds of
millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Shark Tank
The Shark Tank
One of these intrusive data-mining tactics Common Core is employing are
the iris scans of students, like the ones conducted as several schools
in Polk County, Florida. Yes, iris scans, which Malkin says are
“essentially optical fingerprints, which the school intended to collect
to create a database of biometric information for school bus security.”
While many top Republicans, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush,
have come out in support of Common Core, Republican U.S. Senator Marco
Rubio has once again bucked the establishment by stating that he is
against the Common Core education standards.
I caught up to Senator Rubio in Orlando, where I asked him what his
position on the issue was. When asked if he was against the Common Core
education standards, Rubio answered with a definitive ‘Yes’ response.
Rubio says that he is “a supporter of curriculum reform,” but thinks
that “curriculum reform should be done at the state level.” The junior
Senator reiterated that he believes in “curriculum reform,” but thinks
“it is best done at the state level, not at the federal level.”
And I am very concerned, and quite frankly opposed to any effort to
try to create some sort of national curriculum standard and then try to
leverage the power of the federal government’s funding to force states
to adopt a certain curriculum standard. State and local levels are the
best places to come up with curriculum reform, and its something the
federal government shouldn’t be deeply involved in.-Senator Marco Rubio
Rubio first sounded off against the federal government’s education grab
in early July, when he penned a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan, stating the unconstitutionality of the move to create a
national education curriculum.
I am also concerned that the U.S. Department of Education has
created, through its contractors, national curriculum materials to
support these Common Core standards. Such activities are unacceptable;
they violate three existing laws: NCLB, the Department of Education
Organization Act, and the General Education Provisions Act.
All three laws prohibit the federal government from creating or
prescribing national curriculum.-FL Watchdog.
- See more at:
http://shark-tank.net/2013/07/25/marco-rubio-opposes-common-core-education-standards/#sthash.79tmdCs7.dpuf

Immigration bill outlaws 'discrimination' against illegals!

Justice Department to prosecute 'unfair practices

The
immigration reform bill would make it illegal for employees to
discriminate against the millions of newly documented illegal aliens who
would be granted provisional status, a WND review of the legislation
has found.

Case of such discrimination would be referred to the Justice
Department’s Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment
Practices.

The text of the bill makes it an “unfair immigration-related
employment practice” for a “person, other entity, or employment agency,
to discriminate against any individual because of such individual’s
national origin or citizenship status.”
The anti-discrimination law applies to the following:

The hiring of the individual for employment.

The verification of the individual’s eligibility to work in the United States.

The firing of the individual.

The bill makes an exception for cases in which a newly legalized
alien is competing for the same job with a U.S. citizen or national or
against another newly legalized alien provided the two competitors are
“equally qualified.”

Another exception is a business that employs fewer than three
employees or if discrimination is necessary to comply with federal,
state or local law, or a federal government contract.

Employers found guilty of discrimination could be fined a penalty of
between $2,000 and $25,000 for each individual discriminated against.
The fee depends on the “unfair” employment practice.

Adding more fuel to the Obama, Jackson, Sharpton, and Holder
initiated racial fire, last week HUD (Housing and Urban Development)
Secretary Shaun Donovan, speaking at an NAACP Convention in Orlando,
Florida (where else as it seems Orlando is now ground zero for all
things race related thanks to the trumped up Zimmerman case) blamed what
he called ‘black failure’ solely on discrimination by white
people against black people.

By his saying, “We have got to shape a future where ladders of
opportunity are available for all Americans…For African Americans, this
is critically important. Historically, for this community, the rungs on
these ladders have been too far apart making it harder to reach the
middle class” Donovan is NOT only stirring racial hatred but is also
fueling a class warfare battle…a hallmark of this administration.

In his speech, Donovan went on to claim that discrimination by whites
is what forces…YES forces… blacks to live in run-down, dangerous
neighborhoods as well as forces them to attend bad schools (gee, he
seems to have conveniently forgotten all about the voucher program).
And by making this ridiculous claim Donovan stirred up all the old
hatreds to willfully cause further racial animosity while advancing the hate
agenda of the afore mentioned race-baiters.

Oh and by the way, I think most blacks would take offense to being
told that they’re failures when the vast majority are NOT…but in today’s
reality of all things Obama, we have to cater to that ‘small but vocal
militant black minority’ and that is exactly what Donovan did.

And
the Obama administration’s HUD initiated solution to this
supposed discrimination and unfair ladder rung climbing…drum roll
please…old-fashioned block-busting (or ‘Social Engineering’ as their
proponents like
to call it) of white neighborhoods on a grand scale…meaning that
wherever white people live, NO matter the income level, there has to be
the right racial
mix…a racial mix deemed appropriate according to this wonderful (gag)
group
that claim this will be based on the newest census data….and we all know
how reliable that data is…said sarcastically of course.

And if Obama and his buddies at HUD say there isn’t what they
consider to be the right racial mix, then federal funding for said city,
town, county, or state will be cut off.

But what most do NOT realize is that by forcing integration of
neighborhoods using the withholding of federal funds and grant monies as
blackmail…YES this is blackmail…with the claim that the Fair Housing
Act requires grantees, such as cities, that receive federal housing
funds to ‘affirmatively further fair housing’ (whether the blacks want
to live in those white areas or NOT or can afford to keep up the places
they will be moved into) Obama has once again successfully played the
race card to his advantage. …and Congress will fund HUD’s budget to the
tune of BILLIONS of dollars to implement this nonsense for fear of being
called racists themselves.

In fact, HUD already tested this program. Using Westchester
county, the fourth most racially diverse county in New York state
according to the 2010 census and also one of the wealthiest, as the test
case, HUD used majority white neighborhoods as evidence that the county
somehow discriminated against blacks, thus allowing the Obama
administration to sue the county for allegedly violating the terms of
their HUD grants…overlooking the fact that anyone could live there who
could afford to buy there with racial discrimination playing NO part in
the demographics. So, to get back the grants (even wealthy communities
need grants) and fulfill a 2009 settlement with HUD in which the county
agreed to spend over $50 million on 750 new subsidized housing units for
minorities, HUD then suddenly upped the deal and demanded that 50% of those 750 low-income
housing units have at least three bedrooms and that they be built in
above average school districts (now raising the cost outlay for the
county to $94 million). Never mind that it meant that the affected local
municipalities had to change their long-standing zoning
laws as well as being forced to counter community opposition…in other
words the public and the neighborhoods be damned…either they’ll integrate as
Obama and his buddies see fit or else NO monies.

Blackmail if you ask me.

And all this is extremely unfair because blacks make up only 13% of
the entire American population, yet that 13%…or more precisely the
‘small but vocal militant black minority’ within that 13%… is now
dictating to the 87% where they will live, and all with race-baiter
Obama’s stamp of approval.

And to make matters worse, Obama and his cronies at HUD will
‘selectively’ pick which white neighborhoods across the country they
want to ‘bust’ as they will have the census data of where the majority
of whites live to guide them, and you can be sure it will be the upper
middle class white neighborhoods as witnessed by what they did in
Westchester county. And when the small but vocal ‘element’ (and you
know exactly what I mean by that) moves into those neighborhoods (and
brings down the property values because what has NOT been addressed is
how those black neighborhoods got so bad in the first place) you can
clearly see the true motive behind all this…relocating minorities (who
get away with voting numerous times) into upper income white areas
because those upper income white areas are more likely to vote
Republican or Tea-Party, and with the midterms coming up Obama needs to
change the voting demographics in those white areas across America from the R-column to the D-column.

After all, there’s too much at stake for Obama NOT to do this as
Benghazi and the other scandals are starting to take their toll on his
and the Democrats poll numbers…and with Barack HUSSEIN Obama it’s all
about votes and hating his white half.

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The Patriot Factor

I am an American Patriot...part of the grassroots movement of bloggers spreading the truth the media will not. I am also co-host with Craig Andresen of RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on American Political Radio. http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history